European Union News - Internal Market

The European Commission launched a public consultation on modernising EU rules governing insolvencies. In the light of the results, the Commission will later decide whether and how the existing Regulation needs to be revised in order to bolster businesses and strengthen the EU's Single Market.

The European Commission will carry out a thorough assessment of national direct taxes to determine whether they create unfair disadvantages for workers that live in one Member State and work in another. More than 1.2 million people work cross-border in the EU and gross wages paid to cross-border and seasonal workers in 2010 amounted to €46.9 billion.

Mr António Vitorino, appointed by the Commissioner Barnier, has launched the process which aims to identify the best manner to achieve coherence, effectiveness and legitimacy in the implementation and application of the principles and legal framework underpinning private copying and reprography levies.

The unemployment rate increased in the euro area and in the EU in February 2012 compared with January 2012. In particular, the EU unemployment rate was 10,2% and the euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 10.8%. The lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany, and the highest in Spain and Greece.

The Eurogroup decided among other things, to make the paid-in capital of the ESM available more quickly than initially foreseen in the ESM Treaty, in respect of national procedures. In addition, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) will be the main instrument to finance new programmes as from July 2012. The EFSF will only remain active in financing programmes that have started before that date.

The General Court confirms the fine of more than €151 million imposed by the European Commission on Telefónica for having abused its dominant position in the Spanish wholesale market for regional and national access to broadband Internet.

The European Parliament adopted the draft legislation on OTC derivatives previously agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators. Under the new rules, OTC derivative contracts would have to be cleared through central counterparties (CCPs), thus reducing counterparty credit risk, i.e. the risk that one party to the contract may default.

The latest Eurobarometer survey published by the European Commission pointed out that SMEs are creating green jobs. In 2012, almost 13% of all SME jobs were green jobs while in large firms it was only 1 in 33 equivalent to 3% of all large company jobs. Nonetheless, the findings from this survey also reveal that less than a quarter of SMEs take advantage of the single market for green products or services.